Epilogue Slide
by College Fool
Summary: If Avatar were a game, Sokka would be the character who's post-adventure story would be shaped most by his relationships within the game. Sokka and his many epilogues. Complete.
1. Aang

I don't own Avatar, if I did Sokka would have a lot more serious moments, etc. etc.

General rule of thumb for this fic: put yourself in the frame of mind that Avatar was something of an RPG in which you could choose the dialogue, if not the overall story, and these are the possible ending scenarios for Sokka, depending on a host of invisible factors like hidden plot flags or an approval system within the party that the player could manipulate. If a epilogue doesn't _quite_ play along with the canon... well, some players play differently and like different characters more than others.

Why? Because I find it fun that Sokka could most plausibly do the greatest number of things after the series ended.

This entire fic has been written, posting it in my peculiar style of a micro a day.

* * *

**Epilogue**

* * *

When Sokka is closest to **Aang**, it is because it is the closest to being a big brother to a fellow male he'll ever get. Camaraderie, loyalty, yes, those are all there, but it's the ability to _mentor_ that sets it in motion.

Because, for all that Aang is a hundred and what-not years old (technically), and Sokka never saw a girl near his own age who wasn't his sister until they left, Sokka _knows _stuff. Guy stuff, life stuff, funny stuff, or just stuff. And he's happy enough to share, and somehow discrete enough not to blab.

So when Aang has awkward questions about girls, Sokka shares timeless wisdom he heard third-hand from the tribe's real men. When Aang is a bit too trusting, a bit too quick to fall for a scam or story of the world, Sokka's there to fish him out. And when Aang hit puberty… well, Sokka doesn't laugh _too _much when Aang's voice cracks.

And when Aang is faced with whether to use his powers for the war or not, Sokka is there to help him remember what is really important. When Aang can only face what he can do, he relies on Sokka to come up with the plan. And when Aang holds the weight of the world on his soldiers, Sokka's right there to help him bear it. There remains almost nothing Sokka wouldn't do for his friend, even give away his sister's hand in marriage, and there's no limit to Aang's gratitude, and reciprocity, to that feeling.

Why would that trust, that brotherhood, change one iota after the war?

* * *

_After the war, Sokka continued his travels with the Avatar, helping to restore balance to the world. While his name would forever be overshadowed by Avatar Aang's, as all other names from the period tended to be, his roles as an ever present companion, confident and advisor would not. Aang and Sokka spent much time over the years traveling together, whether mediating international disputes, arguing the relative merits of a vegetarian versus meat diet, or simply in close proximity as brothers-in-law, though both men would consider their status as brothers to long precede that._


	2. Katara

**Epilogue**

* * *

When Sokka is closest to Katara, it's because they never let anything come between the bonds of family. They never have.

Yes, they fight, they argue, they quibble and scream. Not a week goes by without some conflict or another. But this is natural. This is life in the Water Tribe, where individuals grow accustomed to life in the cold and proximity to one another. This is life for siblings. This is the nature of water, of violence and peace, push and pull.

But when anything occurs, they were always among each other's first response. When anger, unhappiness, malady or disaster strikes, they were there to help, to watch, to stand by and simply wait for the moment they might help. When joy, surprise, exhilaration was to be had, they would share in it. Joy in the other's happiness. Co-misery in the other's sorrow. Always there, always a part, and never separated for long.

They grew up together. They lived together. They would grow old together. They were family, and nothing would change that.

* * *

_After the war, Sokka and his sister Katara eventually returned from their journey to the Southern Water Tribe, where they would restore their tribe to its former splendor, at least in between their adventures and journeys elsewhere. But they always returned, and it came as no surprise to anyone when one day Sokka became Chief of the Tribe, perhaps one of the greatest ever remembered… or that Katara not once ever stopped chastising him of every foolish mistake he ever made._


	3. Toph

**Epilogue**

* * *

When Sokka is closest to Toph, it might well be said that they brought out the worst of each other, and the best of each other, and that despite a lack of any destiny it could seem impossible to consider it turning any other way.

Power and impotence, perspective and a lack of it, patience and exasperation. Unless it was their willingness for simultaneous immaturity, whatever one seemed to have, the other could be counted upon to lack. Was it compensation, that on some level one felt the need to be what the other was not, to bring some sort of balance? Or was it subversion, a feeling that the only proper response to one's pride and arrogance or just plain over-maturity was to bring them down a peg?

Did they moderate each other, or merely fan the flames?

It wasn't something so banal as a child's first crush, or a simple flattery, or love-by-last-availability. It wasn't anything convoluted or complex beyond all comprehension. Whatever it turned into later, it didn't start as. What it started as was positively simple.

Forget the rules. They had fun together.

* * *

_After the war, Sokka continued his journey with his friend Toph, who remained incapable of returning home for any extended period of time before breaking out in boredom. Instead the two continued traveling the world, sometimes with their friends on important quests and adventures, sometimes not, and always getting themselves into (and out of) trouble along the way. Many an inn or a tavern can recount a tale of some mischief and considerable property damage the duo became known for, and many more would claim so as their legend grew over the years._


	4. Suki

**Epilogue**

* * *

When Sokka is closest to Suki, he is the closest to his equal counterweight.

Yin and yang or such over-used ideas in the Water Tribe, but Sokka simply can't help but think it is appropriate. She might have well been one in and of herself when they first met: feminine yet powerful, mature yet capable of petulance. Deadly but affectionate. Contradictions to what he expected, and yet somehow everything he found he wanted. And as he grew and matured, she found the same in him: not simply a barbaric misogynist, but so much more.

She made him feel clumsy with her poise and confidence, yet he made her insecure like a maiden. Her gravitas, her maturity, put his whimsical nature to shame, yet she admired his determination and resolve. He was innovative and yet conservative: she was progressive and yet an entirely different sort of traditional.

They were not magnetic opposites, to attract. They were not anti-materials, which could not mix. They were interlocking components, seeing in the other the very things they found lacking in themselves… and sharing a conviction that the other lacked no such thing, despite protests.

Perhaps they were not made for each other, but they _fit._ That was more than enough.

* * *

_After the war, Sokka found adventures no less interesting in an entirely difference context: on the home front, with Suki. Between balancing time on Kyoshi Island with responsibilities and duties at the South Pole, Sokka and Suki ultimately managed responsible, happy, and mostly peaceful lives together… at least in so much that their regular spars and occasional adventures could be considered peaceful._


	5. Zuko

**Epilogue**

* * *

When Sokka is closest to Zuko, no one is more surprised than either of them… and no one else quite understands it like them either.

On the surface of it, they have so little in common that their initial clashes are almost clichés: angry jerk versus careless dufus. Fire versus water. Prince versus peasant. Their lives are as different as their family histories. And yet- and yet, family is really how they bond.

Not simply in a daring jailbreak of Sokka's father from prison. Not simply a post-war tracking of Zuko's mother. Not simply in shared sympathy for the mutual miseries (of entirely different sorts) resulting from their sisters.

It's what else family is. It's the trust that forms for seemingly no other reason, the easy animosity that vanishes in the presence of true danger, it's the ability to rely on, to trust, on another for no other reason because you can, because for all their (many) flaws that person is still trying to be a good person, and at the end of the day you find that you have to many things in common (a desire your peoples, a vague nebulous plan for the future, or simply an eye for the ladies) to throw it all away for anything.

There are a lot of ways it _could_ have started. Treason, mutual imprisonment, mutual reliance, a hundred tales could have been told. But it always seems, at the end, to come down to the equality of brotherhood.

* * *

_After the War, Sokka surprised everyone by eventually going with Zuko to the Fire Nation, formally as the Water Tribe ambassador to help in the post-war rebuilding and diplomacy effort, informally as one of Fire Lord Zuko's most trusted advisers, and actually as a determined pest who never stopped dragging the normally serious Fire Lord down to the streets of the capital to lighten up with the commoners. While Sokka's antics often dominated the court gossip, few could deny the Fire Lord's easy humor when the man was around, or could avoid the fear of His displeasure when any political maneuvering against the Tribesman was discovered._


	6. White Lotus

**Epilogue**

* * *

When Sokka is closest to the Order of the White Lotus, it could be said that he is furthest from all his friends. Not, to be clear, that they do not care for him. Not, to be clear, that he does not care for them, and deeply. But rather, after so much time surrounded by so many masters of the elements to which he could never compete, it would only be natural that he would eventually look elsewhere for understanding, and to be understood.

Piando saw this, Piando understood this, and the most suspicious might say that Piando encouraged this. But Piando merely gave Sokka the opportunity to enter a world in which the flexibility of the elements was far secondary to the flexibility of the mind.

The Order of the White Lotus would be necessary, as it always had been. The Avatar is only one person, however powerful. One force for Balance in the World, the last resort of Nature when all else had failed. The Order, the Order could prevent it from failing in the first place, not through armies and bending but through wisdom, whispers, and knowledge of how to use the universal skills.

Piando saw a boy, self-estranged and powerless, but with the desire and the potential to help the world. Piando did not make him do this: Piando merely made Sokka aware of what he could do.

* * *

_After the War, Sokka continued his travels, alone this time. After returning to Master Piando's estate to finish his training there, Sokka traveled the world, learning with many other masters, and mastering many other skills. In between times of helping his friends and the Avatar, Sokka became a familiar, if never permanent, presence in many of the highest circles of the lands, as often seen in the halls of the Earth Kingdom as behind the Throne of Fire or in the Ice Palace of the North, a man with the ear and trust of all the wise rulers of the lands. When Sokka died of old age, not even his wife or sister knew of his decades-long position as Grandmaster of the Order, or of his indispensable role in shaping and preserving the unique Age of Peace that lasted after the end of the War._


	7. Eccentric Old Sages

And we start hitting the length-creep phase for the... less conventional epilogues.

* * *

**Epilogue**

* * *

It isn't so much that Sokka ever became closest to the Mechanist or Wang Shi Ton or anyone else above everyone else, but rather that with their help Sokka became closest to himself.

In so many respects, Sokka was not fit for the world he was born into. A staunch dis-believer of magic in a world of spirits, a devoted advocate of science in a world where scientific principals had barely been breached, and so much remained unknown and unexplainable. But Sokka believed in it, clung to it, even as he would not believe, would not submit, to the ideas of spirits and the unknown. In so many ways, he would have been better born a hundred, two hundred years down the road.

In his mind, the only element he needed to bend was surprise: surprise the crowds with fireworks and flash-bangs from oh-so-conventional oils and chemicals. Surprise his friends with his abilities to forage and hunt food without so much a flicked wrist of any element. Surprise the scams and gamblers with his superior understanding of chance and numbers.

And, of course, surprise his enemies with the oh-so-primitive-yet-dynamic boomerang-from-behind trick. Gets them every time.

But the Mechanist, and Wang Shi Ton, and his travels, opened his eyes to how much more could be done. He felt guilt, deservedly so, for being so instrumental in developing the war balloons that the fire nation later used to advance their conquests. He knew his weapons, his tools, his knowledge, could be used to cause great misery.

But that was always the people behind the machines, not the machines itself. Machines were like knowledge, themselves inherently neutral. It was the person behind the usage that mattered, and the machines could do so much _good_ that it hurt to see that no one would consider them.

Like the lunar calendar in the library: just imagine the scientific applications! Or the fire nation's metal ships: the poles were filled with coal waiting to be mined, and metal ships could carry in so much more food for the villages. Even Omashu, Ba Sing Se, or even the Fire Nation's navy proved that bending could be incorporated with machines and machine principals to do so much more than either alone! His invasion force, as bloody necessity as it had been, had been a beautiful fusion of science and spiritual progress!

Oh, the Fire Nation. To think he once hated them so blindly: they might have been a bunch of racist egotistical jerk-faces, but they hadn't been wrong when they thought their machines were the promise of the future.

His friends were great, and he loved them all very much, but he had this idea for a new carriage that could drive itself, and he was sure that he could work out the kinks if no one would bother him for just a few more days…

* * *

_After the war, Sokka failed to settle anywhere for long, and found himself traveling to various parts of the world, studying various technologies and ancient devices, and endlessly trying to improve upon them, his efforts gradually gathering to him a small but committed band of disciples. When he wasn't dragged out of his lab by his friends to help save the (or just see the light of) day, or being reminded by his assistants to eat his food and put on all his clothes before trying out a new idea, Sokka gained a reputation as an eccentric genius who's benign inventions ultimately brought great progress and and benefit to the world, lionized and romanticized by history as the archetypal genius of many fields, from war to art to flight and other advanced technologies. Much of his work was funded by King Bumi of Omashu, recognition of value from one mad genius to another._


	8. Ty Lee

And now we enter AU territory, and with longer lead-ins.

* * *

**Epilogue**

* * *

When Sokka is closest to Ty Lee, it's a bit sad to say that it was because he met her first.

It's sad to think of how much could change on a child's dilemma: to ride the Unagi, or go to a circus on tour? We know of what occurred one way, which actually goes to show us how similar it would have been had it gone another.

Tell me if you've heard the tale. Back-country bumpkin with an ego two sizes larger than his brain goes to new location, sees exotic skills done by a girl. Boy opens mouth, spouts misogynist bull crap, angers girl who initially had open opinion, and gets humiliated and beat up by said girl.

Said boy realizes error of his ways, begs for forgiveness in front of girl, begs to be taught. Girl agrees on specific terms, humiliates his masculinity, and is gradually re-impressed by both his willingness to go along with it and his ability to learn.

A certain Fire Nation Prince, chasing the Avatar, arrives. Chaos erupts: flames start burning, and the Avatar must flee. In a quick moment surrounded by flames, boy gives heartfelt apology, girl accepts, and boy is rewarded with his first kiss on the cheek not from his mother before fleeing.

Most of the tale goes the same way, with minor changes. When they do meet, Sokka and Suki start on much better terms, with much less friction-turn-attraction. His attention, and sighs, are directed elsewhere. As was said, the ease of difference might be a bit sad.

What is _not_ sad, however, is just about everything else. What is not sad is the confusion and comedic value of their reunion, and realization that they are on separate sides. What is not sad is the flirtatious way in which Ty Lee fights, or how much the drama frustrates Sokka's sister (and amuses his friends). What is not sad is the actual drama and serious conversation that occurs in the heart of Ba Sing Se when she captures him and they finally, truly talk to each other, about each other, about the war, about their loyalties. What is not sad is the underlying development from kiddy flirtation to mature thoughts and concerns. What is not sad (but a bit heavy) is their actual connection and development as, over a variety of situations, they both accept that she isn't an eternally peppy airhead, and he isn't… well, he isn't just the Sokka that's easy to caricature as comedic relief.

What isn't sad (except to Azula) is the prison break, the ultimate betrayal and escape, and a few episode sub-plot of finally accepting it all.

It's comedic, flashy, and fun, but at the same time there's an undeniably adult undertone of questioned loyalties, exotic allure, and hidden seriousness that shouldn't but does surprise everyone when it rears its head.

Which, when you think about it in those terms, suits Sokka perfectly.

* * *

_After the War, Sokka continued his travels with his girlfriend Ty Lee, 'running away with the Circus' as friends and family liked to put it. And a circus it could be called: bright, colorful, and cheerful everywhere they went, leaving the same behind them, the two spent some time righting wrongs, spreading happiness, and overall making the tired, bitter world a more energetic and happy place as they enjoyed being themselves with each other. Though age and responsibility did bring them to eventually settle down and at least act mature most of the time, it never took away their happiness towards life, or each other, nor did it ever stop them from the occasional free-spirited adventure on a whim._


	9. Azula

Only one more after this. This Epilogue is one that is so context and AU specific it was hard to write. Not my favorite output, but I do enjoy the contrast.

As a matter of curiosity, why have more people put this on their Alert lists than have actually reviewed the entire story? You'd think if you liked it enough to be emailed daily, you'd review at least once.

* * *

**Epilogue**

* * *

When Sokka is closest to Azula, the entire world has shifted on its axis at some point.

Sometimes he is the exile from his world. Sometimes she is. Sometimes time itself has changed: a different war, different alliances, such radically different contexts that they can at last meet and interact in any context but flame-to-blade.

But when they can, there seems to be something that provides a mark of hope: Sokka isn't afraid of her. He might fear being hurt, he might fear her flames, but that's in the same sense a man fears the sword pointed at his throat, without fearing the person holding it. Just as importantly, though, he doesn't hate her personally. Most importantly, however, is that she can believe him, even where she couldn't trust her friends, her teachers, or even her mother.

The reason it might work, the only reason it could work, is because Sokka doesn't take anything personally, and isn't invested in agreeing or opposing her. When he thinks she's wrong, even if she isn't, he'll disagree. The fact that he won't submit, and that he won't be intellectually browbeat into something he feels is wrong, that he is too stupid to be _afraid_, is breathtaking. Fresh. A novel, yet desperately needed, experience.

And it's that same honest that allows her to believe him when he says yes. Yes, Azula, that was a good plan. Yes, Azula, you were right and I was wrong. Yes, Azula, that was very good.

For a girl who heard lies in her own mother's praise, it is priceless. It's probably why she went out of her way to keep him around.

It's the necessary combination for trust on her part. He can't be intimidating into claiming to be her friend, or into fearing her. His approval isn't guaranteed, as her mother's was, but nor is it never possible, as with her father. It is genuine. Sokka could, but with no guarantees, offer what her friends, her brother, her own parents, never could.

It isn't easy. It isn't simple. It isn't even likely: context has to change, a lot, to even give it a chance. _But it could_, if it could and other factors weren't in the way, and maybe just once it will.

Or so she hopes. Deep down, where she doesn't have to admit it, and she can continue to lie about it.

* * *

_After the War, Sokka and Azula's tempestuous relationship, if it can be called that, continues. Nothing is agreed upon until the last moment: what they are, where they might go, even if they will go there together. Lighting, flames, and yells regularly fly between them, and Sokka's friends repeatedly attempt to intervene on his behalf of his safety. But so far Sokka has always waved them off, pointing out that if she wanted to hurt him he'd be hurt already, and suggesting this as a sign that she's improving. All things considered, few are reassured._


	10. Yue

The Last One. Generally the 'canon party' groupings came in under 400 words, while the 'AU/other' came at closer to 600 words each. Personal thoughts are that most of these are good because they were specific/plausible enough, but the vagueness of any Azula connection meant that that one should have been tossed out: the entire idea of the epilogues are to give an idea of where the relationships/connections are going, but that one was a distinct 'unknown.'

I like this one, though: a mix of plausible AU and established character. Also, happy. Good way to end off.

* * *

**Epilogue**

* * *

When Sokka is closest to Yue, it is because she has survived.

The reasons and manners how rarely matter. A young Fire Nation Lieutenant dies in the desert, unknown and forgotten, miles away from the Spirit Library. Captain Zhao, having sent his letter mere minutes before losing the Avatar, is disgraced and demoted. Hanh, in his suicidal charge, succeeded. Admiral Zhao and his men are caught well before reaching the Spirit Oasis.

General Iroh, just once, persuades the man of the enormity of the crime he is about to commit.

It doesn't matter. What does is that fate is broken: the Moon Spirit no longer depends upon Yue's own life force to exist, and so its gift comes with no cost. The Princess lives, the prior engagement has been broken by death itself, and she could not deny her affection for Sokka if she wanted to.

And she does not want to. Not that night, not the next, and not any moment before he must leave.

She doesn't leave with him, of course. She remains a Princess, and the face of her people. But she kisses him farewell, and he promises to return, and she promises to wait for him, and without another man's marriage necklace around her neck. Her father doesn't even try to arrange another match while she busies herself arranging for the reconnection with the Southern Water Tribe.

Sokka himself continues his journey with a lighter, moonstruck heart, much to his friend's annoyance, teasing, and slight jealousy. There are hardships: the swamp's cruelty strikes in completely different ways, there are temptations across the Earth Kingdom, and Suki remains the hardest of them all.

But there is joy as well. Joy in love, and being loved back. Relief in support, in acceptance, and in the shared experience and gentle coaching which, despite such a brief reunion before the Eclipse, allows him to stand proud and announce his strategy to all the men to his father's approving eye, and strikes a good impression of the man who will grow up to become Chief in the eyes of all the allies.

And it goes without saying that there is love itself, both carried with him as something to fight for, and waiting for him when he returns.

Perhaps it is cruel to say that no others could have competed with her. Perhaps it is a romanticized view, and the temptations might have overcome, might have persuaded him to change that course.

But then, Yue would claim that Sokka has always been a romantic soul.

* * *

_After the War, Sokka quickly returned to the Water Tribes, where Yue awaited him. While duties at opposite poles of the world, as well as the occasional crisis, soon and regularly split them, it was only for a short while before Sokka returned from one such adventure with a necklace as remarkable and unusual as himself, made of precious materials from across the lands of the four nations. The necklace became as legendary as their romance itself, and Yue's acceptance of his proposal marked the beginning of a long, happy union of not just themselves, but a Golden Age of the long-split but reunited Water Civilization._


End file.
